What does your city sound like?

DW.com columnist Gero Schliess writes about the sound of Berlin. He invites the reader to “[c]lose your eyes” and “[i]magine a stroll through your city, with your eyes closed, but open ears.” As he meanders through his tour of Berlin, he tells us what he hears and how it reflects the city’s current state of being. His ramble veers off occasionally, as he mentions that the Berlin state government has published a “strategic noise map,” but notes that although noise pollution is a deadly problem, “the city doesn’t lift a finger except for printing pretty noise maps.”

Another interesting fact Schliess tells us is Berlin’s state government’s approach to dealing with noisy nightclubs. Rather than fining them, the government “has set up a €1-million ($1.24-million) fund to help night clubs pay for extra noise insulation measure.” While Schliess applauds the program, he laments the loss of what he calls “heavenly sounds”–“[t]he booming bass, the shrieking exalted party people–due to the heavy hand of the law, which has turned “former party miles like Prenzlauer Berg into quiet bedroom suburbs.”

Whether you agree or disagree with his appreciation of all of Berlins sounds (except the traffic noise), we think you’ll agree that Schliess’ piece is a unique observation of a city. And it makes you consider how odd it is that a city’s soundscape is so important to its character, yet it is mostly ignored by those who attempt to describe it.